He said that proponents argue that the practice preserves apartment values, particularly in a declining market.
"We've always advocated for more preservation because it costs less, and because preserving apartments typically makes them more available to lower-income households than new construction," said Tom Waters, a housing policy analyst at the Community Service Society of New York, an advocacy group for the poor.
The piece with mirrors and blue electrical tape by Polish artist Edward Krasinski is interesting enough, but to really understand how bizarre his work is, you need to visit the late artist's preserved Warsaw apartment, which I was lucky enough to do last year.
The Bloomberg administration will, in the end, have poured more than $8 billion into building and preserved 165,000 apartments — more than enough to house the population of Miami.
The money, Ms. Woodson said, not only allowed her to keep a roof over her head, but also helped preserve an apartment that conjures innumerable memories.
Greg Jost, deputy director of University Neighborhood Housing Program, a nonprofit housing group in the Bronx, said that the advantage of creating such interim housing is that it would help preserve vacant apartments for those in need of permanent places to live.
In all, the plan is aimed at protecting 27,000 apartments in 80 buildings in all five boroughs, and is part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's goal of creating or preserving 65,000 apartments through 2008.
The city's definition of preserving affordable apartments means that its housing agencies refinance and renovate buildings in return for keeping rents locked in for long periods, usually decades, as opposed to letting the units rent or sell at market rates.
It's in a well-preserved apartment at the graceful Hampton Court, built in 1921 in what is now the Jackson Heights Historic District.
The city, which has preserved thousands of apartments and buildings in the Bronx, has owned Ms. Fox's property since it was abandoned more than 25 years ago.
Taghiyev's opulent but sober apartments, preserved in a wing of the museum, belonged to a man with a strong sense of place — they were decorated by foreign artisans, but also contained Islamic arches and slender columns.
